PVR350 and PVR150MCE Don't Play Nice Together?

[mooboy]

Hi,

I have a pvr350 and a pvr150 MCE capture cards. I would like to be able record two shows at the same time. However when I have both cards enabled and installed, all I get for output is a black screen. If I disable one of the cards, everything works normal. Is there something I'm missing? Coudl someone help me troubleshoot this issue?

[ricklous]

have you got your 'board number' set right in the config box for your capture cards? both boards should be set to 'Capture Device #1', does this work?

also the PVR 350 is very buggy, to the extent sub recommends not using one, how did you install them? (in my more innocent times!) i threw my 350, NovaT pci and NovaT USB into the pc at the same time and although the drivers went on fine, when coming to config them confusion reigned. I got them working by cleaning the system of all traces, then installing the 350+drivers, setting it up in GBPVR and testing it, then doing same with Novat-pci, then same again with USB. Basicly the way i should have known at the start but sometime eagerness gets the better of you doesnt it :-s

[mooboy]

have you got your 'board number' set right in the config box for your capture cards? both boards should be set to 'Capture Device #1', does this work?

also the PVR 350 is very buggy, to the extent sub recommends not using one, how did you install them? (in my more innocent times!) i threw my 350, NovaT pci and NovaT USB into the pc at the same time and although the drivers went on fine, when coming to config them confusion reigned. I got them working by cleaning the system of all traces, then installing the 350+drivers, setting it up in GBPVR and testing it, then doing same with Novat-pci, then same again with USB. Basicly the way i should have known at the start but sometime eagerness gets the better of you doesnt it :-s

Initially I just left the board number at 1. For both cards. Then I tried setting different board numbers but to no avail. Damn I wish I knew the 350 sucked before I bought it haha. Would it make sense to get two 150s?

[ricklous]

if youre not using the extra features of the 350 then yeah, for ease of installation/later buggy issues, the 150 is recommended more than the 350.

Having said that, as you can see from the spec ive got a 350 and it works fine, *most* of the time.. You may just be one of the unlucky ones! so dont give up right away, it took me a while to figure out exactly how to set my capture cards up. but at some point you may have to be prepared to just call it quits with the 350.

i understand the 150mce comes with a radio but not a remote?

getting a *retail* pvr150 would give you the remote that the 350 gives you, but you would loose the video out of the 350. the video out is the main source of problems though so most wouldnt consider this much of a loss!

whats the spec of your machine? if its good enough to do software decoding then theres not really anything you're gaining from having a 350 over a 150 anyway.

[stu8080]

If your looking in the UK, i had a hard time trying to track down a 150 retail. I used an MCE version which means i still rely on the remote of the 350.

If you get the MCE beware - it causes the remote on the 350 to stop working! There is a workaround though but its not pretty, if its an issue i'll give you the link to the sage forum where someone figured it out.

[mooboy]

if youre not using the extra features of the 350 then yeah, for ease of installation/later buggy issues, the 150 is recommended more than the 350.

Having said that, as you can see from the spec ive got a 350 and it works fine, *most* of the time.. You may just be one of the unlucky ones! so dont give up right away, it took me a while to figure out exactly how to set my capture cards up. but at some point you may have to be prepared to just call it quits with the 350.

i understand the 150mce comes with a radio but not a remote?

getting a *retail* pvr150 would give you the remote that the 350 gives you, but you would loose the video out of the 350. the video out is the main source of problems though so most wouldnt consider this much of a loss!

whats the spec of your machine? if its good enough to do software decoding then theres not really anything you're gaining from having a 350 over a 150 anyway.

My bundle came with the mce2005 remote (i didn't realize it was a media center particular remote) It also came with an ir blaster as well. I don't think it had a fm tuner though? Could be wrong. My media machine is a amd 2000+
with a mx400 nvidia video card. I haven't been able to get the hardware encoding to work with the 350, but I planned to mess around with it more in the future.

[ricklous]

sorry, my mistake, it doesnt have a fm radio on it no. doh! :->

[ricklous]

haven't been able to get the hardware encoding to work with the 350, but I planned to mess around with it more in the future.

i thought you said if you disable either card the other works fine?
are you refering to the DEcoder or ENcoder element?

[mooboy]

i thought you said if you disable either card the other works fine?
are you refering to the DEcoder or ENcoder element?

Well when I said works, I meant software encoding, software playback, etc. When I have both enabled I get nothing on the screen.

[bgowland]

have you got your 'board number' set right in the config box for your capture cards? both boards should be set to 'Capture Device #1', does this work?

Urrrm...no. Both cards are of the same 'type', i.e., 'Direct Recording Source'. They must have different device numbers - one should be #1 and the other #2. The order is unpredictable - try the 350 as #1 and the 150 as #2 - if that doesn't work then swap the dev. numbers.

I originally had just a 350 then added a 500 - I assumed the 350 would remain #1 and the two tuners on the 500 would be #2 & #3 - wrong!. For me, the 350 has to be #3 with #2 being the tuner w/FM radio on the 500 and the tuner without FM is #1. It varies for everyone.

Cheers,
Brian